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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25843114">Company</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLSpacer/pseuds/TheLSpacer'>TheLSpacer</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Paul shapera - Fandom, Shaperaverse</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(just a mention) - Freeform, A Light Smattering of Angst, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, M/M, also just discussions of what its like being trapped in a doll body… it ain't pleasant, and isolation. Don't forget the isolation., ok I wanted this to be wayyy shorter, why are they so talkative</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 04:48:46</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,323</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25843114</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLSpacer/pseuds/TheLSpacer</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>Raven’s hand closes over his, and not for the first time, Lloyd wishes desperately that he could feel its reassuring warmth. Feel anything.</em>
</p><p>Or,</p><p>A late night conversation, and brief musings from Lloyd on the nature of his and Raven's relationship after years spent apart. And also, the fact that he's a doll.</p><p>Or,</p><p>I abuse ellipses: The Fic</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Lloyd Allen/David 'Uncle Raven' Adams (Shaperaverse), Lloyd Allen/Raven | David Adams</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Company</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>School's starting tomorrow and I wanted to write a quick fic before it does, so here you go! Lloyd's 'I have no body, but at least I don't have nobody' story. Enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Raven finds him out on the wooden steps of his (their?) trailer, reading in the dim light. He had parked the Carnival on the outskirts of some podunk town in some podunk narrative a few hours before, and now the only sounds that can be heard in the night are the soft chirping of crickets, and the occasional wooden creak as Lloyd’s doll form moves to turn a page. </p><p>“Up late?” He tentatively jokes. </p><p>Lloyd startles, slamming his book shut and whirling around to face the man standing at the doorway behind him. </p><p>“Oh. Ravey. It’s you.” He relaxes just slightly (over the past week, Raven had become increasingly adept at sensing emotion from Lloyd’s form. In this case, the almost imperceptible sound of metallic joints loosening was the tell). </p><p>“Who else would it be? It’s just us out here.”</p><p>“Us and the other carnival employees-“</p><p>“-probably passed out drunk-“</p><p>“-and the Floozies, who seem to have an unnerving penchant for popping up when and where you least expect it-“</p><p>“-know better than to disturb me this time of the night unless there’s an emergency-“</p><p>“-not to mention that Shira girl-“</p><p>“-always turns in early, that one-“</p><p>“-and Han Mi.”</p><p>Raven deflates. “Ah, yes. Her.”</p><p>“I’m assuming you’re still unsure of what to make of that girl.” Lloyd knew him better than to phrase it as a question. Damn the man. </p><p>Raven sighs. “We’ve been over this before. The first time we met, I fucked with her and her friends, messed her girlfriend’s head up spectacularly. Now I’m sure she sees me as some monster, which I was. Am.” </p><p>He rubs at his eyes, the lightbulb flickering overhead casting strange shadows over his face, and Lloyd can’t help but notice that Raven looks so old and so very, very tired. “And you know this isn’t a conversation I want to have while I’m sober.”</p><p>Lloyd can’t help but make the jab. “I’m sure that attitude of yours helps matters a great deal.”</p><p>Raven only laughs bitterly. “You know better than to expect a response to <em>that</em>.”</p><p>Lloyd doesn’t hum in acknowledgement, per se, just a low vibrating noise that travels through his wooden body. </p><p>“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this,” Raven says, mouth quirked in a bemused grin. </p><p>“You had better start, because I’m planning on being here for a long, long time. And I hope that somewhere down that line, you would plan on eventually detaching yourself from that doorway you seem fixated on looming in.”</p><p>“Ha ha,” Raven intones, rolling his eyes. In a stride, he’s beside Lloyd, lowering himself down onto the trailer’s steps.</p><p>“Finally. I was getting rather uncomfortable with you hovering over me like that.” </p><p>Raven reclines, resting his palms on the floor behind him. “Your own problem. The Floozies love it when I hover. Makes them feel safe, or something to that effect.” </p><p>“As it should be obvious,” Lloyd begins, wood creaking as his body tensed up in the motion Raven recognised as <em>bristling</em>, “I’m very much not a Floozy, and I can take care of myself, thank you.”</p><p>A brief flicker of hurt passes over Raven’s face, and if he was able, Lloyd would have winced. </p><p>“You know, if you didn’t want me disturbing you, you could’ve just said so. Don’t need to be an asshole about it.” </p><p>“Ravey. Wait.” Lloyd entwines his fingers with Raven’s. “I, I apologise for the snark. I do want you here, I’m just... unaccustomed to the company this late at night.”</p><p>Raven’s hand closes over his, and not for the first time, Lloyd wishes desperately that he could feel its reassuring warmth. Feel anything. </p><p>“It’s alright, dear. And I <em>am</em> sorry for disrupting your routine. I know how important that is to you.”</p><p>A tinny, mechanical sigh. “Trust me, you’re a welcome distraction. Back in that cesspit of a city, I would’ve killed for someone, <em>anyone</em> to talk to at this hour.”</p><p>Raven cocks his head. “Didn’t The Room keep you company at night?”</p><p>“I remind you The Room is sentient <em>and</em> alive,” Lloyd retorts. “It eats and sleeps just like the rest of us.”</p><p>“Wait. It <em>eats</em>?!”</p><p>“It’s vegetarian, if you must know.”</p><p>Raven stares at him incredulously, and bursts into laughter.</p><p>“It’s true!” Lloyd insists, as his boyfriend cackles away. “I’ve observed the way it consumes its meals. It is, to be frank, entirely unnerving.”</p><p>“Ha! I can imagine,” Raven grins.</p><p>“Believe me when I say that you couldn’t possibly.”</p><p>“So what, it eats its meat-free diet, it sleeps, and in the meantime, you just-“ With his other hand, Raven plucks the book from Lloyd’s grasp and holds it up. “- read <em>The Shadow of the Wind</em>?”</p><p>Lloyd snatches the book back. “Read anything I could get access to, really. As you know, I don’t have the luxury of sleep.”</p><p>“Must’ve been awful,” Raven says, all matter-of-fact. </p><p>“It was,” Lloyd says, matching Raven flippant tone. Then, his voice is barely audible when he adds, “And it still is.”</p><p>Raven leans against Lloyd, all hard angles and unyielding wood against soft skin, and it’s awkward and uncomfortable and wonderful all at once.</p><p>“Will me keeping you company while you read help at all?” </p><p>“I wouldn’t want to keep you from your sleep.”</p><p>“Eh, I can’t really sleep anyway. It’s hard to, knowing that you spend the whole night out here…” The word <em>‘alone’</em> goes unsaid, but they both hear it loud and clear nonetheless.</p><p>“I’m used to it.”</p><p>“You shouldn’t be, and you won’t <em>need</em> to be. Not anymore.” Raven snuggles up against Lloyd, no small feat considering his current form was very much un-snuggle-able. “I’m staying.”</p><p>They can’t kiss, but Lloyd rests his forehead against Raven’s, and in that moment, it is enough. “Thank you.”</p><p>Raven only smiles in response, and motions to the book on Lloyd’s lap. “Well, don’t let me keep you.”</p><p>Lloyd opens the book, and they read together in the flickering light, and when Raven falls asleep on Lloyd’s shoulder around a half hour later, Lloyd carries him back into the trailer, laying him down on his bed, and after a brief pause, settles in beside him.</p><p><em>Isn’t it strange</em>, he muses, eyeing the sleeping form of his boyfriend, <em>strange that in the week that I’ve been back here, this is the first time we’re sharing a bed</em>.</p><p>It wasn’t that things were cold between them, they were simply… too used to going without each other. In the day they were inseparable, latched onto each other, both unwilling and unable to let go.. At night, Lloyd would be uncomfortably reminded that he couldn’t sleep at all, that he could only listen to Raven toss and turn in bed, constantly fighting the urge to drink himself to unconsciousness as had become his habit, as Lloyd himself whiled away the hours in the living room or outside their trailer.</p><p><em>He’s not tossing and turning now</em>, Lloyd notices. <em>He’s…</em></p><p>Raven opens a dark-ringed eye.</p><p>“I’minbed. Tha'sweird,” he mumbles.</p><p>“You fell asleep outside, so I thought I’d carry you in. Probably more comfortable.”</p><p>“<em>You’rre</em> in bed.”</p><p>“Yes, I’m here, Ravey.”</p><p>“Ithought… I thought you couldn’ sleep..”</p><p>“Well, I’m keeping you company, like how you did for me.”</p><p>“Don’t leave… I like it when you’re here. S’hard to sleep without you.” </p><p>“Ravey, I-“ </p><p>Too late, Raven falls back asleep, a small smile on his lips.</p><p>Lloyd pulls the comforter around the both of them, and lays back. It feels odd, him lying down for the first time in so long, and he mentally steels himself for the long and lonely hours ahead.</p><p>Still… he can get used to this. The whistle of the breeze blowing in from the forest outside, the sounds of nature, the occasional creak of the trailer, the rustle of sheets as Raven shifts ever so slightly closer to him. </p><p>Lloyd reaches out a hand to stroke his boyfriend’s sleeping face.</p><p>“-I love you.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hope you liked it ^^ Leave a kudos, or lmk what you think in the comments, I thrive on positive feedback :3c</p><p>Have a nice day!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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